Nigel Clough – much more to come from Mansfield Town

Stags followed up last week's win over another of the big guns, Bristol Rovers, with a 2-1 win over Newport County today to make it back-to-back home wins to start a season for the first time since 1994.

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“The best thing is I don't think we are playing as well as we can but we are finding a way to win which is a very good sign,” smiled the manager.

“We have not 100 per cent hit our stride yet and we've got six points in the bag.

“We are seeing little patches of play, a few glimpses of what we can do here and there. We just need to do them more often.

“I wish it hadn't been so close again after winning in the last minute last week.

“We were not exactly hanging on in the last minutes but they were putting pressure on as you would expect.”

George Maris had put Stags ahead before poor defending quickly saw Newport level.

But skipper Ollie Clarke almost burst the net with a winner.

“It lifted the net up at the back, he hit it with such ferocity.

“He had a couple of other chances to shoot in the second half and turned them down which surprised us when you've scored that sort of goal.

“Although the keeper should probably have stopped our first goal, I thought the way George Maris won the ball back and hit the target with a shot deserved a goal.”

On the Newport equaliser, Clough added: “It was a very, very poor goal to concede. We have to stop those mistakes.

“It was down to the two centre halves. The ball has gone straight down the middle from a goalkick and we've not made contact with it. That can't happen.”